Associate Consultant

About the Associate Consultant Role at Ascension

As an Associate Consultant on the Strategic Integration Team at Ascension, you will support the organization by implementing national strategic and operational initiatives. This role involves collaborating with executive stakeholders across all business areas to solve Ascension’s most important and ambiguous problems. Success requires exemplary critical thinking, relationship building, and organizational skills to analyze complex data, develop strategic and tactical approaches, synthesize diverse stakeholder visions, and deliver results on time. You will also play an essential peer role in onboarding new associates within the team.

Project Management and Change Management

• Support implementations of new healthcare strategies and processes of low to medium complexity across Ascension.
• Identify critical next steps, track project tasks and goals to completion, and ensure stakeholder accountability.
• Assist in designing and executing implementation and change management plans, including workstream development, communications, business transformation, end-user training, and success measurements.
• Ensure effective meeting management through facilitation, detailed note-taking, and timely follow-up to drive initiatives forward.
• Aid in the stand-up of the Ascension National Incident Command Center (ICC) during extreme crises by collaborating with leaders, reporting updates, tracking action items, and facilitating calls.

Relationship Building

• Build relationships quickly by exhibiting executive presence among senior leaders.
• Provide exceptional customer service, situational awareness, and proactive hospitality to all project stakeholders, including leaders, end-users, and external parties.

Deliverable Creation

• Develop business cases for national initiatives, including cost/benefit and pro forma financial analyses, funding justifications, and implementation schedules.
• Utilize internal and external data sources and research to inform project decision-making and implementation strategies.
• Prepare insightful, easy-to-understand analyses and reports from various data sources.
• Create, review, and present executive-level deliverables, such as weekly project updates, status reports, and presentations.
• Research and develop new solutions to continually improve team processes and effectiveness across initiatives.

People Management

• Assist in recruiting efforts by participating in interviews.
• Support the onboarding process by serving as a peer partner for new team members, integrating them into the team culture and transferring knowledge.

Requirements

Education:

• High School diploma equivalency with 3 years of cumulative experience; OR
• Associate's or Bachelor's degree with 2 years of cumulative experience; OR
• 7 years of applicable cumulative job-specific experience required.
• 3 years of leadership or management experience preferred.

Key skills/competency

• Strategic Planning
• Operational Initiatives
• Project Management
• Change Management
• Data Analysis
• Stakeholder Collaboration
• Executive Presence
• Business Case Development
• Financial Analysis
• Process Improvement